KLA 2023 Takeaways

I attended my first Kansas Library Association Conference this past week in Wichita and LOVED the experience!

I learned about ribbons:

... and how to use the Whova app, which kept me informed, on schedule, and engaged with other attendees before, during, and after every event:

I learned that despite my workplace being located behind security gates and under the protection of military police, I am, in fact, NOT an island, and there is an extensive community of like-minded individuals who know e-x-a-c-t-l-y what it takes and means to be a librarian and are within reach via email and social media, in addition to my district colleagues who are just a phone call or short drive away. My PLC grew by leaps and bounds!

Speaking of my awesome colleagues: we started each morning with some coffee from "Perks," the hotel's branch of Starbucks:

... and made sure to grab extra copies of handouts and links to shared digital content when we attended different sessions from each other.  My Google Drive is full of presentation slides, resources, fabulous quotes and affirmations, which is where I'll also be adding copies of photos I took during presentations.

I learned about the benefits of bibliotherapy for young children.

During lunch, I learned much, much more about the playbook, tactics, and propaganda being used by hate and anti-government groups across the state and nation, and how the American Library Association is fighting to ensure that students in public schools and readers/patrons of public libraries continue to be able to exercise their right to read.  Meeting a librarian seated at our luncheon table who had been followed home and harassed by members of Moms for Liberty and hearing other details about what she's experienced was riveting.  Shortly after, the keynote speaker asked how many librarians were having to deal with the same kind of treatment in their communities.  The number of hands that were raised was truly staggering, and indicative that the movement to ban books and restrict our freedom of speech and thought is no mere TikTok fad. These people are organized, and if you haven't yet encountered one as a librarian, it's likely you will soon.

Make sure to sign up at Unite Against Book Bans to learn more here.

I enjoyed a much-needed tutorial on how to access all of the incredible resources available for free from our Kansas State Library and received a draft list of this year's William Allen White Award nominees so that I can make sure we have the books in our library so that students can cast their votes.

Meeting vendors face to face was helpful and I even met our PermaBound jobber, Bob, who gave us copies of the Newbery and Caldecott Medal winners and a calendar full of the birthdays of authors and illustrators.  My students will LOVE these!

My colleagues and I have been pushing to create a formal reconsideration policy for our collection materials.  Attending KLA reaffirmed to us just how important and helpful such a policy can be for librarians, patrons, families, and administrators, so we intend to share this information as soon as we can.  

 

We were able to hear more about the proposed updates for our Kansas Standards for Library and Information Literacy. We will be able to continue to unpack our standards so that the entirety of our library programs and not just the student lessons can provide our learners with every opportunity to grow, think, create, and collaborate as they use our resources for their benefit. 

Finally, after meeting and speaking with so many school and public librarians from Kansas, a significant takeaway for me is that my school district should be trying to get their money's worth by using the ENTIRETY of my knowledge, training, and qualifications to benefit learners in my school and in our district.  While bachelor's degrees are required for individuals to teach in classrooms, a master's degree is required for anyone hoping to become a librarian. Public librarians do much more than simply scan barcodes on books and return books to shelves in alphabetical and numerical order, host story time, and create lessons and programming for patrons.  And so do school librarians.  Collaboration with teachers, curriculum committees, communication with families and the community, professional research, ongoing collection evaluation, development, and maintenance, assisting students with research, addressing social-emotional needs, and supporting literacy development each and every day through programming and availability is more than a full-time job.  Public libraries employ multiple librarians for several shifts daily while school library staffing has cut library assistants, leaving lone librarians as both teachers and facilitators of every element of library programming listed above.  No matter how well-intentioned, volunteers cannot take the place of trained professionals, and school librarians should not be pulled from the library to assist activities elsewhere.  Mistaken assumptions about our job shouldn't rob learners of librarians who are essential resources, and shouldn't contribute to the exponential stress school librarians experience as we try to fulfill the duties of three full-time staff members during each and every eight-hour workday. 

*****

Did you attend KLA 2023?  What were your takeaways?